Litter Training Your Ferret by Calvin_and_Hobbes

[Calvin_and_Hobbes]

Litter Training Your Ferret

You’ve brought your new fuzzy friend into your home. Anxious to get aquainted, you let him out of his carrier into the ferret proof room you have designated as his room to play in.You watch in joy and laugh at his crazy dances. Then, he starts to back up to a corner. Before you can do anything, he’s landed a soft brown pile on the carpet. You then realize, he’ll need to be litter trained.

Ferrets do not absolutly have to be litter trained. However, a litter trained ferret makes clean-up a breeze, and it usually keeps their environment cleaner because you only have a few litterboxes or newspapers to clean up, instead of picking up random poops everywhere. Don’t expect your ferret to be 100% litter trained, though. Some ferrets are perfect at knowing where to do their business—others need some guidance. Most ferrets hit the box or newspapers about 90% of the time.

So how do you go about littertraining a ferret? If you get a ferret from a shelter, most likely they will already be litter trained. But chances are, if you bring home a new kit (baby ferret) from a petstore, they will not be litter trained.

In the cage, try to eliminate possible poop spots other than where you want the litterbox to go. Place food, bedding, or toys in corners you don’t want your ferrets to go. Most ferrets won’t poop on their bedding. If your ferret poops in a different corner than where the litterbox is, add another litterbox in that corner. Moving the litterbox will probably result in the ferret choosing different corners everytime, so you’d have to be constantly moving the litterbox. If your ferret is new at learning to be litter trained, even after scooping the litterboxes, leave a “starter poop” in the box, so the ferret can smell the poop and understand that the litterbox is the place to go. If you see him backing into a different corner, quickly pick him up, firmly say “No”, then place him in the litterbox to finish his business. He may hop out without eliminating, but keep placing him back into the litterbox until he goes. If you have the corners filled with litterboxes, once your ferret is littertrained, you can eventually work down to only having one or two litterboxes (depending on the size of the cage) left for your ferret to do their business in. Another factor that may deter a ferret from going in the litterbox is if it is too dirty. Scoop the boxes often so your ferret has clean litter to eliminate in. If you find your ferret is sleeping in the litterbox, while he’s asleep, gently move him to his hammock, where he is supposed to be sleeping. Hopefully after a while, he should get the point.

There are many different types of litter. Many choose to use wood pellets, such as Feline Pine and other things. Wood stove pellets work just the same, and are much cheaper. You can usually find them at a hardware store, but some stores may only cary them seasonally. Sweat Scoop is also an acceptable litter. If your ferret is a snorkeler, avoid cat/clumping litter. It can get in their nose and mouth, expand, and possibly cause serious problems. Some can use this kind of litter without a problem, and some can’t. The soft paper litter that is used as bedding in most small pet homes (hamsters, mice, etc.) can be used, but doesn’t control odor as much, isn’t as absorbant, and is very light so it can get kicked around.

Another factor is the litterbox style and size. If the box is too small, a ferret will probably not use it. The small triangle boxes can be used when a ferret is a kit, but kits grow fast, and it would be better to get some bigger boxes from the get go. There are large style triangular litterboxes, and there are also rectangle cat litterboxes you can use.

Outside of the cage is a big, vast world to a ferret. They are often so wrapped up in exploring, stealing and stashing, bouncing and dooking, that they don’t know they need to go until the urge suddenly hits. Place newspapers, puppy training pads, or more litterboxes in corners you want your ferret to use. If you see them backing up to a different corner, quickly use the same above technique to move them to the right spot. After he has done his business, give him a couple licks of Ferretone. Every time he does his business in the right spot outside of the cage, give him some ferretone, but gradually decrease the amount you give him so that eventually, he is going in the right spot with no treat afterwards. Another technique is to start out with a small area, such as a ferretproof room. Once your ferret is successfully littertrained in that room, expand his area. You could add the hallway, or another room. After he masters those areas, keep expanding. If he starts to miss the box, decrease the area and start again.

Hopefully soon, you should have a well litter trained ferret!

Please feel free to add anything or ask questions!!

*I only modified this to add the spaces between the paragraphs to make it easier to read - K10*

[stupidhed]

I have a question. How does one discourage a ferret from flinging litter everywhere? My familly's ferret is very bad about flinging litter everwhere, within and outside her cage.

[xVelvet_FuzzButtx]

*when your ferret starts doing this, run over and scruff him ad say "NO." firmly.
*Another good idea is to provide your ferret with a Dig box, whether with long grain rice,biodegradable peanuts,sand,shredded paper, or plastic easter eggs. Here some pictures & ideas.

Dresden <3
Junior Mod

[tigerduh]

with the wood pellets - I got a bag from Lowes but both mine seem to think its food and keep trying to eat it. They are still young (6 weeks) so should I just use newspaper until they get the idea of where to go and then switch?

[Calvin_and_Hobbes]

Try putting some poop in the litterbox, scatter it around. Maybe they'll get the idea that since they're poop is there, it's NOT food. Or, when they do that, direct them to their food bowl.

[ferretlover1051888]

putting his mistakes in the litterbox is the only thing that's teaching my fuzzy. He use to go in every corner and it drove me nuts because he even went on uncleanable toys...that I had to through out. I did the thing where you put the poop in the litter box and he's getting the idea now, he hasn't had an accident in a while now. I use yesterday's news (recycled newspaper put into pellet form) , I cant put too much in or he thinks it's a sandbox and digs, tunnels, and throws it all over! LOL!

[Remedy]

With me and my boyfriend's ferrets, we've had problems with the litter box. Twitch has never taken to using one (she's nearly two years old now) and Kipling doesn't get it either. We've tried your methods, but unfortunately we can't be with them all of the time, so we often come home to poop in all the wrong places.

A more irritating thing is that Twitch will actually move the litter box out of her pooping corner and poop there. The litter box has clips to hook to the cage, but she somehow still lodges it out of place just enough so that she can poop in her corner.

We also tried removing the front "wall" of the litter box so it would be easy to back-up in, but Twitch still moves it out of her way.

As a result, we scoop the poop a couple times a day and once a week we have to do a full scrub-down of the bottom of the cage where Twitch poops. It would be so much easier to just clean the litter box.

Suggestions?

[LunarFlame]

Remedy: what shape are these litter boxes?

[Remedy]

lunarflame said:

Remedy: what shape are these litter boxes?

Triangular, so they fit into the corner.

[Gizmo]

Try a rectangular box.
I (and many others) have never had luck with triangular boxes.

[LunarFlame]

Yeah, the triangluar boxes are just a pain for fuzzies. I dont think many will use them at all. Sophie used to do the same thing with her triangle box.. she'd poop beside it, or rip it off the cage and poop where it used to be.. lol

Even now, she hates it. I tried to put it in the bathroom corner that she uses all the time, and she ripped it off the wall and scattered litter everywhere..lol

[Remedy]

Interesting, I would have thought the triangle one would work better, especially since we removed the front wall (we hoped the ferrets wouldn't even notice there being a litter box). Why is it that ferrets take to rectangular boxes better? I'm curious.

[Gizmo]

I think because it gives them more room to get situated where they please.
I have had both, and they always chose the rectangular one over the triangle ones.

Who knows what these little picky things are thinking sometimes!

[Remedy]

Hm, I think I've put together a new plan on getting the ferrets to use a litter box. I'll talk your guys' suggestion to use a rectangular box. My boyfriend and I were previously pondering drilling holes into the sides of the litter box and attaching it to the bars of the cage, so our ferrets cannot move it. Addtionally, I think we'll replace the corncob litter with fabrics and hook items (IE toys) to the other corners, leaving the ferrets only one place to actually poop. We'll see how it goes, and if my boyfriend is up to the challenge. XD

[tinysagittarian]

yeah, I have rectangle ones on the outside, Osa likes it cause like Gizmo said more room to get situated. She does this little ballerina move lol...and puts her paws up on the sides, so she's sideways (like a ballerina hanging on to the bar haha).

I put placemats outside the cage too where they go in case they move the litter box or "miss" by a few inches lol!! Easy to clean up or put in the right place.